Introduction to injection molding

Injection molding machine

Injection molding cycle

Injection of the melt into the mold
Holding pressure and plasticating
Additional melt is injected to compensate for
contraction due to cooling
As the melt cools and solidifies, the pressure
should be high enough to avoid sinkmark

Ejection

Injection molding cycle

t=0
Screw pushed
forward
Mold filling

Hold time

Screw recovery
Part cooling

Mold closed

Soak time
Part ejected
Mold open

Characteristics

Expensive molds for large production runs

Low assembly cost
High pressure limits the size of the product
Long products require multiple gates
Part thickness less than 5mm limits the cooling time
Part thickness larger than 0.5mm premature solidification
Cycle time is money

Clamping

Clamping force pushes the mold halves together, while the pressure of
the melt inside the mold pushes the mold halves apart.

Mold

Sprue: entry channel of the mold

Mold

Runner

The objective is to have the plastic reach all gates at the same time.

Flow into the mold

high degree of orientation of the surface layers

significant gradient in orientation and morphology

Weldline

orientation

Important process parameters

Product parameters
Product dimension, weight, appearance

Main process parameters

Cavity pressure, injection pressure, fill time

Additional process parameters

Melt temperature, mold temperature, hold pressure,
cooling time, total cycle time, barrel temperature, screw
speed, power consumption (screw, barrel heater)

CAE S/W
MOLDFLOW
- MF/VIEW
- MF/FLOW
- MF/PACK
- MF/COOL
- MF/GAS
- MF/FIBER
- MF/WARP
- MF/STRESS

: Pre/post processing
: Mold filling analysis
: Packing analysis
: Cooling analysis
: Gas-assisted injection molding,PFP
: Fiber orientation analysis
: Shrinkage/Warpage analysis
: Structural/stress analysis

C-MOLD C-SET: Reactive molding

ANSYS

: Structural analysis

CAD S/W

: AUTO-CAD, Pro-engineer